Global Health Voices: Komal Khanna
Komal Khanna, SHOPS Plus chief of party in India, explains how the project uses private sector engagement to amplify and sustain results in child health and family planning.
Watch the video to hear in her own words the value of corporate engagement.
The SHOPS Plus program in India has forged a variety of corporate partnerships to amplify its efforts in social and behavior change communication. For example, a partnership with MTV Foundation produced a radio program for youth that addresses myths and misconceptions around family planning. The team also partnered with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, India’s largest oral rehydration salts manufacturer, to disseminate information on oral rehydration salts and zinc. By facilitating a stronger relationship between Dr. Reddy’s and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Reddy’s provider network has increased prescriptions of oral rehydration salts and zinc to treat diarrhea at home. SHOPS Plus also worked with Dr. Reddy’s to host ‘Facebook Live with a Doctor’ events and extended its reach to 700,000 people.
Another type of corporate partnership forged by the project's team in India is the condom alliance. In March 2019, SHOPS Plus convened a group of condom market players to explore the possibility of forming a condom alliance as a way to grow the condom market. This alliance brings together competitors in the condom market around the table to collaborate and advocate to the government, to reduce market barriers. Since then, the group of more than 25 corporate entities, representing more than 44 percent of India’s condom market share, has unanimously ratified the alliance’s charter and are exploring ways to invest in a digital condom campaign and condom prototypes emerging from SHOPS Plus’s behavioral economics study.
The team has learned that developing partnerships requires a delicate balance of patience and perseverance, skill sets beyond family planning and social and behavior change, and a strong focus on the end goal to be successful.
Learn more about our work in India, public-private engagement, and corporate engagement.